If you’re a self-published author, you know how difficult it is to find qualified editors, designers, and effective marketers for your books. It can be tempting to try and do everything yourself, especially if you’re publishing on a budget, but often this can lead to less than stellar results.
If you take your writing seriously, there will be times when you’ll want to invest in outside help. Luckily, there’s a platform called Reedsy that will help you address these needs.
In this article, we will cover:
- How Reedsy can benefit you as an author
- The pros of working with high-level editors and designers
- Some simple tips to get your account up and running
- A few drawbacks to keep in mind
Table of contents
Note: We’re going to examine this platform from the level of an author looking for assistance with other aspects of their work, rather than the freelance creative perspective. But keep in mind, if you are stellar at creating books covers, editing, or other book publishing services, you might want to check them out for job opportunities as well.
Also, one last note, but this article does have affiliate links in it. Originally I wasn't going to use an affiliate link for this because sometimes that feels like it dilutes the value of an honest review. However, talking with Ricardo of Reedsy, he's offered to give Kindlepreneur readers a $25 credit for those who signup and set a contract. So, if you are going to use it, you might as well get yourself 5 Starbuck Lattes worth of goodies.
What Can Reedsy Do For You?
Are you a self-published author who’s struggling to find a professional book cover designer?
Have you been through editor after editor, and haven’t been able to find one that actually understands your projects and its goals?
Or are you desperately seeking a translator for your work because you're ready to crack the German market?
When you’re choosing to self-publish, there are certain parts of the publishing process where you can benefit by outsourcing. The most common pieces you’ll choose to outsource include cover design, website design, editing, translation, and book marketing.
But where do you begin? How do you differentiate between the good editors and the ones just looking for some quick money…because let's face it, there are a LOT of those on Upwork and other VA job platforms.
This is where Reedsy steps in.
Formatting Has Never Been Easier
Write and format professional books with ease. Never before has creating formatted books been easier.
Click here to see it in actionWhat Makes Reedsy Different
Reedsy is a platform that allows you to connect with designers, editors, translators, and marketers who have extensive experience in the publishing space.
Reedsy has freelancers for just about every step of the publishing process: there are editors and designers, translators, book marketers, website designers, book marketers, book reviewers, and even book publicists. Reedsy launched in November of 2014, making it an experienced and well-rounded marketplace.
Currently, there are over 150,000 authors who are using the platform. However, unlike most other freelancer platforms, every freelancer who receives an account is vetted by the Reedsy team to verify they perform their service at the highest level quality.
In other words, a professional team ensures that those who apply for your job are legitimate and worth the money. Plus, they have a review system in place where you can take not only Reedsy's word for it but other authors' as well.
With Reedsy, you can gain access to expert help — without having to land a publishing deal. You'll be just a search away from finding a top-notch creative freelancer to complete your publishing project.
Coupon Reminder: Using this affiliate link, you can get $25 off your first contract.
How To Get Started With Reedsy
Getting started is quite easy. Just follow the steps below:
Step 1: Signup
To create an account, enter your email in the big box at the center of the screen, or create an account via Facebook. For the sake of example, I’ll assume you’ve chosen to set yourself up as an “Author”.
Step 2: Choose Your Job's Requirements
At this point, you can choose what type of service you're looking for:
- Editor
- Designer
- Publicist
- Marketer
- Ghostwriter
- Website Designer
- Translator
- Book reviewer
After that, you can select specific information so as to narrow the number of potential freelancers and find the right one.
Step 3: Select 1-5 Freelancers
After step 2, you'll have a list of potential freelancers. At this point, I would recommend clicking on each and looking at their credentials, portfolio, and information. Find the one that fits your needs.
Once you find one who seems like a good fit, hit select, and continue looking. You can select a total of 5 in one job/campaign.
Step 4: Provide the Job Description
In this part, you get to tell the prospective freelancers what your job will entail. The key is to be very specific.
Once you've submitted your information, your freelancers will have the opportunity to send you a job quote.
Step 5: Negotiate and Conquer!
You’ll then go into a negotiation with one or more of the freelancers you’ve selected. Hopefully, this process will end in a successful working relationship. But, if it doesn’t, Reedsy has you covered.
They offer a guarantee to all authors that if any conflicts or differences arise, or if you aren’t completely satisfied with the end result, Reedsy will take care of it…satisfaction guaranteed.
Luckily, this very rarely happens, since the freelancers on the platform are vetted and experienced.
Wanna See It in Action?
Drawbacks Of Reedsy
After all the good things I’ve said, you might just think I’m working for Reedsy 😉
As with any platform, there are going to be some drawbacks to using the service. For starters, Reedsy only features verified professionals. This is great from a quality standpoint, but it's unlikely you're going to find a bargain here. You'll likely find cheaper services available on a platform like Upwork.
Reedsy also doesn’t give you any contact information or email addresses until you enter into official collaboration with a designer or editor. This can be a turn-off for some authors who would like to conduct more research on their own before settling into an agreement, but remember, there is a satisfaction guarantee.
So, Is Reedsy A Yes Or No?
The final verdict depends upon what your needs are as an author — and your budget.
Reedsy has amazing professionals in just about every area of expertise you might require: from translation to book reviews to book marketing. Even if you already have an editor or cover designer, Reedsy still has offerings that might interest you. Not only that, but they also have a free formatting tool that anybody can use, a free Character Name Generator, and a free ePub to Mobi File Converter.
Reedsy is constantly expanding and adding to its offerings for authors. So if you don't find what you're looking for today (though I doubt that), you probably will in the future. And don't forget to save $25 off your first contract here.
If you need to find professional editors, translators, web designers, or book cover designers, this platform will connect you with the right professionals. And for self-publishers with big goals, sometimes hiring the right people can make all the difference.
I have had (and am currently having) a terrible experience with Reedsy. First of all, I’ve spent about $3000 there so far trying to get one single book ready for publication. The 20% caught me by surprise. In a developmental edit, I had to pay several hundred dollars on top of the $1200 I paid this guy.
The guy was a professional in the publishing industry and thus locked in the traditional mindset. When I sent him my book, he told me exactly what all trad guys tell you: rewrite the whole damn thing. Now, this is after I have rewritten in for traditional publishers four times. FOUR TIMES. I told him I didn’t want to rewrite at this point and if he could just read the whole thing to the end and give me ideas for smaller changes like scene issues, great. He refused to read the entire book (which is what I paid him for) then mentioned that he knew someone I was working with in the traditional industry, implying that if I leave him a bad review, he’ll talk to my agent. He discouraged me from writing completely and I really felt like quitting (I’ve been at it for 25 years). For my own sanity, I had to put the book away for months, the whole thing made me so angry.
Then, somehow Reedsy started a collaboration with someone even though I didn’t accept their proposal and took money from my account. They would not fix the problem, telling me I had started the collab (I didn’t) and cancelling would cost $200 (WHAT?!) So I was forced to either pay this person for no work, or pay the whole thing for possibly substandard work. After the other experiences, I had ZERO faith.
I hired an artist. He took forever and tried to do the very least amount of work possible. I told him up front what I needed and since it was complex, I knew it would be expensive. He charged me, but then tried to cut corners all over the place, sending me a photoshop document.
I realized that I had one expectation for what work must be done, and each person had a different expectation. This is why, if you use Reedsy you have to CLEARLY outline what you expect. Like, crystal clear. I thought that if you hire someone to do developmental edits, they naturally read THE WHOLE THING. Nope. Guess that was expecting too much. I thought that clearly outlining the characters I wanted the artist to draw meant that he would draw them. I guess that was silly to expect. He drew ONE of them and then drew a bunch of stuff he liked to draw.
I really thought I was going crazy.
They are much too expensive. I’ve used Upwork for ten years and only had a problem once or twice, but the work always got done and at a great price. And as the buyer you have all the power. Reedsy gives the workers more power to screw you over.
Will be closing my account soon.
Hi,
Thank you for your review, I am really glad I went over the information and insight you shared. I made my account with them after reading your article as I am looking for an editor, however the $25 credit wasn’t applied not sure why.
Hmmm…not sure why. However, if you contact them and let them know that you did and it said they’d get a $25 credit they should apply the credit.
Well these comments scare me a bit. I’ve recently hired an editor from reedsy and am already locked into a collaboration with her. She had nearly 100 books under her portfolio which impressed me from some of their Amazon ranks and of course her cost was rather high which I am willing to pay and already started paying for even though I’m waiting until next year for services because of her schedule and my need to save the cash for paying…
But these reviews are concerning to me… Ugh.